Biomass and microbial activity in backwashing processes of a biofilter for tertiary treatment were investigated. The microbial groups revealed new distribution along the biofilter depth after low flow rate backwashing for a short time. Then the start-up process was accelerated by backwashing. The biomass profile and microbial activity profile both varying with depth before and after backwashing...

Suggested Reading: Jenkinson, D. S. and J. N. Ladd. 1981. Microbial biomass in soil: Measurement and turnover. p. 415-471. In E. A. Paul and J. N. Ladd (eds.), Soil Biochemistry, Volume 5. Marcel Dekker, New York. Tunlid, A and D. C. White. 1992. Biochemical analysis of biomass, community structure, nutritional status, and metabolic activity of microbial communities in soil. p. 229-262. In G. S...

Noah Fierer,* Michael S. Strickland, Daniel Liptzin, Mark A. Bradford and Cory C. Cleveland Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA Odum School of Ecology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA Department of Environmental Scie...

Past studies of plant–microbe interactions in the alpine nitrogen cycle have revealed a seasonal separation of N use, with plants absorbing N primarily during the summer months and microbes immobilizing N primarily during the autumn months. On the basis of these studies, it has been concluded that competition for N between plants and microbes is minimized along this seasonal gradient. In this s...

Despite the relevance of landscape, regarding the spatial patterning of microbial communities and the relative influence of environmental parameters versus human activities, few investigations have been conducted at this scale. Here, we used a systematic grid to characterize the distribution of soil microbial communities at 278 sites across a monitored agricultural landscape of 13 km². Molecula...

Global environmental factors impact soil microbial communities and further affect organic matter decomposition, nutrient cycling and vegetation dynamic. However, little is known about the relative contributions of climate factors, soil properties, vegetation types, land management practices and spatial structure (which serves as a proxy for underlying effects of temperature and precipitation fo...

Agricultural production can be limited by low phosphorus (P) availability, with soil P being constrained by sorption and precipitation reactions making it less available for plant uptake. There are strong links between carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) availability and P cycling within soil P pools, with microorganisms being an integral component of soil P cycling mediating the availability of P to p...

Soil microbial respiration is a central process in the terrestrial carbon (C) cycle. In this study, I tested the effect of the carbon-to-nitrogen (C : N) ratio of soil litter layers on microbial respiration in absolute terms and per unit microbial biomass C. For this purpose, a global data set on microbial respiration per unit microbial biomass C – termed the metabolic quotient (qCO2) – was com...

The effect of cattle grazing on the soil nematode and protozoan communities, and on microbial biomass, was measured in Israel’s northern highlands. Three grazing areas were compared: (1) with 1 1 cow ha 1 y ; (2) 0 55 cow ha 1 y ; and (3) control—no grazing for almost 18 years. Soil samples were collected from the upper 10 cm level of each area (n1⁄4 24), in autumn, before the onset of the rain...

It is well established that soil microbial communities change in response to altered land use and land cover, but less is known about the timing of these changes. Understanding temporal patterns in recovering microbial communities is an important part of improving how we assess and manage reconstructed ecosystems. We assessed patterns of community-level microbial diversity and abundance in corn...